I am fundraising for Christiane, my housekeeper for over 20 years who called me on Friday in tears because she was just tricked by scammers on the phone who drained all of her savings from her bank account. Everything. The scammer was even still on the phone when she saw the withdraw from her account. She yelled at him, "I worked really hard for this money cleaning houses, and that's all I have!" He said, "I'm sorry," and hung up.

Christiane is hardworking, trustworthy, and very responsible with her money. She regularly collects used clothes and items to share with others in need. She is always taking care of other people. Last Friday, she was actually in Nicaragua for her father's funeral when it happened. I cannot imagine the emotional trauma the past 3 days have brought.

I will make sure she gets back everything she lost by making up any fundraising gap. She is a dear friend to me, and we have helped each other out many times. Please help with any amount you wish to contribute, but I would like to request that you also leave her some words of encouragement, that all of humanity does not suck. Her daughter Bea will make sure she sees all of them.

P.S. some of you are probably wondering how the scam happened. I'll post updates once we know more, but basically, she was tricked into calling a fake PayPal customer service number (check on a transfer to a family member that didn't go through), and the scammer had her log into her bank account while he was on the call. She did not give out her account number, login/password, or any other sensitive information. Then she saw a transaction that cleaned out her account. So far, Chase bank and Zelle (used by scammer) both said there's nothing they can do.